Cupid
by Tigerdust
Summary: Future Torchwood branches be aware. Meteors spell certain doom, even if no alien gas comes from them. My first Ianto fic in awhile, please be gentle. TTM prompt possessed in use. Janto and Gwen, Rhys story.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: My return to the fandom after the incident in CoE Day 4. Please be gentle. AU set after Series 2.

"Put the gun down Ianto!" Jack's voice rose in panic, mimicking the fear in his eyes.

"No, Jack! Not this time! She has to learn. There are consequences for messing with our lives!"

Gwen was groggy. She was waking, finally, tied to a chair. Her chin slowly rose, lifting from the low cut red dress she had been wearing. "Ianto....what..."

Jack was circling Ianto, approaching slowly with his hands out to show he was unarmed. "You're not responsible for your actions. Don't do something stupid."

Ianto grimaced. "That's not true! I see things much more clearly now."

Jack's voice echoed in the dark, abandoned factory. "You're being controlled!"

Gwen's eyes went wide. She noticed the revolver pointed at her before she noticed Ianto's shaking hand. He was crying, a tear dripping onto the knuckle every now and then. "Good."

"Gwen, are you awake?" Jack set his jaw, trying to remain calm, despite the circumstances.

"Tell me what the hell is going on, Jack! Ianto, what are you doing?"

Ianto's voice warbled with resolve. "Something I should have done along time ago. It's all right because we all die young anyways. You, me, Tosh, all of us. Everyone but him."

Gwen tried catching Ianto's gaze. "Ianto, we have to talk about this. You've got to put down the gun."

"Not this time."

Ianto fired.


	2. Chapter 2

It had all begun innocently enough. There was going to be an eclipse, standard par for any Torchwood Three surveillance. Ianto's position since Tosh and Owen's death had been increased so much that Gwen was simply allowing the small field of take-out coffees to huddle around her personal computer terminal. She yawned.

"We have to stay up. Could miss something important."

"It was just a yawn, Ianto."

"You're falling asleep."

"Yes, well, it's not the most exciting thing. I'd rather be out there with Rhys and Jack, patrolling for the umpteenth time tonight."

Ianto smirked as he took the readings of the heat signature on the edges of the coming eclipse. "I know. But we're still short-staffed and I haven't yet come across anything with which to clone myself."

Gwen chuckled. "Well, it would make things more efficient around here."

"We'd run the risk of making Jack's head explode, though."

Gwen yawned again, shaking her head. "Lucky thing it would regenerate."

Ianto nodded, crossing his arms as he watched the fluctuating patterns. "Yes, lucky for us all."

The alarm went off as the main entrance gear rolled away, Jack swaggering in with Rhys not far behind. "What's lucky?"

Rhys bit into the greasy slice of pizza atop the brown paper bag he had brought supper in. "I'll tell you what's lucky. Nothing happening during this eclipse. I seem to recall another one not long ago in India that left the three of you up to your elbow in cockroaches. Had to call the exterminator myself before you lot drowned."

Gwen looked away from her screen, offering her husband a flutter of her eyelashes. "You're exaggerating just a bit. You missed the part where their captain played the tiny violin he had for us."

Ianto shrugged as Jack passed him by, hand sliding across his shoulders. "I don't know. I thought the traveling refugee vessel from Moline hitching the ride on the eclipse were polite enough."

Rhys let himself fall back onto the couch near Gwen. "I say a cockroach is a cockroach."

Gwen merely smirked as Jack walked into his office. She loved Rhys madly, but knew that even in this world there were things he simply wouldn't understand.

"Hey Gwen, I've got a reading you might want to come look at."

Gwen walked over to the terminal and crossed her arms as she tried to decipher the dancing numbers across the bottom of the screen. "What's all this then?"

Ianto nodded to himself slightly as he talked, very aware that Jack was probably watching him from the glass office, wondering why he hadn't come in with coffee for a quick rendezvous yet. "Well," Ianto began as he slid the cursor all about the screen. "This first temperature is the normal temperature of space. Very cold, yeah?"

"Same temperature as our bed lately, then?" Rhys piped up from the couch. Gwen threw a nearby empty coffee cup she had carried with her in his general direction. "Oy, I just call them as I see them." His eyes shined affectionately for his wife, though.

Gwen retorted. "That's enough out of you."

Ianto ignored the love fest. "Yes, well, as you can see- there is a discord between the spacial temperature and the temperature of the sun. This is to be expected. What is different is down here...do you see that?"

Gwen squinted, puzzled. "No. What am I looking for?"

Ianto looped the cursor around the slot. "Here. Its got a different core temperature in this bit according to the calculations breezing through the system."

"Should we be worried?"

Ianto shrugged. "Probably not." There was a brief flash over the computer and a spike in the cold temperatures that sent Ianto's fingers over the keyboard in a flurry.

Rhys noticed the minutiae shift in his wife's facial features. "What's wrong?"

"Ianto, give me the trajectory." Gwen spoke through gritted molars. She remembered the last time something had landed in Cardiff.

"Working on it. That's a very strange point to come in from an eclipse."

Gwen nodded. "Of course. It was planned."

Rhys got up from the couch. "Its always planned. Whats going on?"

Gwen nodded to herself. "Rhys, get me the thermostatic weaponry from the locker, yeah?"

Rhys was back in half a second. "Where are we going, then?"

Gwen grabbed something from a nearby printer, scanning a code into her GPS wand as it was downloading stats from the temperature gauge. "Nowhere. Ianto's going with me. That's if you don't mind, Jack!"

When no response came from the office, Gwen began to scrutinize the numbers intensely, tuning Rhys out.

"Hello? And why can't I go then?"

Gwen looked up at him, shook her head and sighed. "Can't risk having a diplomatic situation. We probably almost had an incident with the Moline."

Rhys cocked his head. "What? Do you think they'd just overrun our planet...oh wait...that's already happened Gwen!"

Gwen was already heading out the door, grabbing Ianto by the elbow as he grabbed his coat. "Not changing my mind! Besides, Ianto and I have been stuck inside all day and we want our turn out."

The alarm sounded, drowning out Rhys rebuttal. Rhys turned, blinked, and jumped when he was a little startled by Jack's head popping out of his office. "Where are they off to?"

Rhys shrugged. "Something about temperatures and anomalies...."

Jack sighed. "Just call them and make sure Gwen's not allowed to use the excavation equipment. Tell her that the same rules apply as last time a meteor landed."

Jack was about to shut the door to his office when Rhys walked over, brow furrowed. "What do you mean, last time?"

Meanwhile, Ianto was smiling as he watched his breath move through the cold air. He and Gwen were walking at a brisk pace, following the nearby signature that hadn't seem to do any damage. It was strange, the Plaza being this abandoned on a Saturday. Cardiff folks were becoming a mite superstitious, which would be good for them in the longer run.

"Thanks for that."

"Don't mention it. Twenty yards ahead."

Ianto continued. "No, I mean it. You could have just as well brought Rhys."

Gwen squinted in the distance, looking up from the modified GPS attachment. "Yes, well, I thought we could both use some air and I'd rather you were with me if its something important."

Ianto blinked. "That bodes well for your marriage."

Gwen halted, looking up towards the horizon as her only glance toward the sky. "Yes, well, its better than him being killed for Torchwood. Need two people for a marriage, after all. Here, we have it."

Ianto nodded. "I see it. Less than twenty yards ahead, no activity."

Gwen tapped her Bluetooth. "I'll call Jack to check in."

Ianto walked forward. "It's not active. I'll set up a perimeter."

By the time Gwen was off the phone with Jack, Ianto was near the edge of the small crater, staring at the space ice that seemed to dot the meteor. There was enough of a hole that he wouldn't be able to touch it or take readings without a second person to tug him back from the edge.

"What do you think?"

Ianto sighed, stroking his chin. "Best I can tell is that there is no parasite or symbiotic of note, no germ readings, nothing. If something is camouflaged, it would have most likely already made itself known."

Gwen nodded. "Score one for us once, then."

Ianto pulled out a small excavation kit from the inside pocket of his coat. "Well, better safe than sorry. Hold my arm."

Gwen leaned back as Ianto reached forward with his body weight, angling himself with the pickax and bag, her hand tying with his to keep one part solidly planted to the ground. His gloved hand moved forward, touching the ice cold crater. His internal alarms went off, but he thought nothing of it based on the fact that Gwen was close enough to push him into the hole. He had a mistrust of a woman who had seen him in flagrante delicto with Jack and had never brought up the connotations it had for the team, especially considering her crush on his lover.

The gem picked off the meteor quite easily, giving Ianto room to breathe when he was no longer tilted away from solid ground.

"Didn't you wear gloves Ianto?"

Ianto looked down at his hand, the glove having disappeared. "I did. Perhaps this space crystal feeds on plastic or polyurethane?"

Gwen furrowed her brow, frowning. "Lets get back to the Hub and have your hand checked out, just in case."

Ianto shook his head. "I'm sure its fine."

They jogged back to the Hub, at any rate. Bioscans showed up normal, the alien crystal and subsequently the meteor was contained. Any breaks in the Centre floor were explained away by an errant two-ton truck. Everyone went home, congratulating themselves on not getting into yet another strange and ultimately horrid adventure.

Ianto began hearing the voices in his head the same night. At first, he thought it was Jack talking in his sleep. He shifted in bed, Jack almost snoring softly, somewhere beyond Ianto in the REM cycle. Ianto was getting good at ignoring things his mind was trying to say. It was only on the fourth night that the voice broke through clearly.

"You know he's only keeping an eye on you, right? Its not love. Love doesn't keep secrets." It wasn't Jack's voice or Lisa's voice in his head. It was a biorhythm, strangely attune with his own mind. His eyes began to pop in their sockets. His heart fluttered. Ianto couldn't ignore the voice anymore.

"He's not strong enough. Look at what you're putting him through." Across town, Gwen's own biorhythm woke her. She turned on a soft lamp and tried to read.

It was a groggy morning, even the rainy clouds seem to agree. Torchwood Three was wondering if they weren't becoming obsolete. Perhaps the whole galaxy had finally noticed the planet that the Doctor had been guarding so carefully and decided to keep away for their own interests. There was talk of vacation.

"Ianto, what was the reading on the crystal yesterday?"

Ianto shrugged, biting a piece of toast in the conference room. "No change in composition, Rhys. Why?"

Rhys blinked, checking the numbers and circling one in red pen, handing the sheet to Ianto before scooping up the last bits of ham from his fry-up. "Because I think the temperature of this thing might be falling. How low a degree can the containment unit hold?"

Ianto shrugged. "Don't know. But if it's any indication, the renegade Veltrian child with the core temperature of negative 100 held it, and it seemed stable enough. Perhaps nothing to worry about."

Rhys furrowed his brow as Ianto seemed to shake himself awake. "You look tired, mate."

Ianto waved a hand in Rhys direction and smiled. "Perhaps. But its not for the reason you think. Just not sleeping well."

Rhys leaned back in his chair. "Pity that. Been having the best sleep of my life these past couple of nights."

Four more nights passed and Ianto was wondering if he could talk back to this voice in his head. He had found his head lolling as he was clicking away on an all-night project Jack had given him. The voice popped in for another turn. "He'll outlast you. That's both fine and acceptable. But don't you think she's being a bit selfish, trying to take him away?"

Ianto felt himself nod as he continued to nod off.

The lamp light was soft as Gwen continued writing in her journal, trying to compare what happened with Carys and the gas imprisoned in her meteor versus this meteor and why Ianto's glove seemed to evaporate from his hand. A paper slid out from beneath her hand and onto the floor. The voice caught up with her then.

"What should happen if the Daleks return? Are you strong enough to lose him? Could you bear to be without someone who could live forever?"

Gwen had trouble registering the paper after that. Her vision just seemed to go blurry for about five minutes.

"What's wrong, Jack?" Gwen's brow furrowed.

His arms were crossed as he studied the containment unit. "Nothing. Everything. I don't know."

Gwen grimaced. "That doesn't bode well. What's happened?"

Jack sighed, looking from Gwen toward the glass and back again. "Its lost another three degrees core temperature. Its as if the gem is defying certain principles of science. And its shape has changed."

"Well, I'll try and pinpoint a trajectory. See if we can work out the shape, yeah?"

Jack nodded. "Yeah."

Gwen patted Jack on the back, smiling, before she walked off to get Rhys' help on the assignment. "Stop worrying. We'll figure it out. It's simple."

Twenty days later, it was no longer simple. Rhys was dead. Jack had been killed and resurrected again. Gwen was found alive, but confused. Ianto had simply disappeared, possibly to Torchwood Two. Archie was a finicky and secretive man, at best. Martha tried piecing the clues together.

She talked to herself as events unfolded in her mind, pieced together from what was left of the unscrambled Hub footage and the secret cameras in Gwen's apartment. Her lips moved along with her former friends and companions.

Rhys had been murdered first. Gwen had been making sausage, burned him to death. Her eyes had been glazed over. On the table, there had been a change in trajectory of the object. It seemed to be becoming an arrow shape. Martha's hand cupped her chin in question.

Martha flipped back to the Hub footage for good measure. Jack and Ianto were talking in the office as Ianto sat across from Jack, both pairs of feet on the desk and a glass of whiskey between the two...or what looked like whiskey. She focused in on the sheets of paper.

Ianto left to print something. He passed by the containment unit, the glass fogging up as he presses his palms against the tempered shield. Ianto doesn't notice Gwen enter in the red dress. He is entranced by the object, as though its feeding from him. On the bioscience reader, its core temperature drops another two degrees.

Jack stands, half in alarm, as Gwen enters with Rhys blood still under her fingernails. She's painted them red to match the dress. He flings his arms about as they talk, voices raised. She is trying to seduce him. She doesn't notice the fire extinguisher or Ianto creeping up behind her. And Jack only notices the revolver once its become too late.

The findings report from UNIT is once again inconclusive about the space object, only a recommendation that it be tossed back into space at the next available moment. A call from the Doctor confirms that this poisoned love rock came from Moline Five, a planet of preying mantis like Grecian aficionados, offended by the treatment of their cousins at the Torchwood Three Hub. The crystals that grow on Moline Five are of two types: Persephone and Cupid. The latter is only launched at enemies during an eclipse. The Doctor has no more findings on the stuff and Martha agrees that to go traipsing after this stuff would be foolhardy. Even for him.

Finding Ianto is paramount.


End file.
